The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.
Boost collaboration with better questions 🐈🐈⬛
Dear Reader,
Let's talk about something that's deceptively hard: facilitating productive conversations is like herding cats with words.
How do you get everyone to express their ideas, especially if they differ from the group?
And getting to a consensus at the end feels impossible.
One powerful tool you can lean on is good questions.
As a designer, asking good questions is an essential skill that helps to drive productive discussions and ensure that all team members are engaged and involved in the conversation.
4 Principles for better discussions
Here are some tips to help you ask good questions during a session:
- Prepare: have some questions in your back pocket in advance
- Listen actively: ask follow-up questions that clarify and expand on participants' points
- Encourage participation: Ask open-ended questions that encourage participants to share their thoughts and opinions, avoiding leading questions
- Be curious: ask probing questions that challenge assumptions or explore new ideas
To help you get started, here are some questions you can have in your back pocket.
Good questions for facilitating collaboration
- What did you notice that made you say that [insert their big idea]?
- Can you say more about that?
- Are you saying [insert possible interpretation]?
- Do I understand you correctly, [paraphrase participant's point]?
- Are there other ways of looking at this?
- Does anyone have a different point of view?
- Has anyone else experienced something similar?
- Who else has felt this before?
- Does anyone have questions for the people who just spoke?
As experts in UX, you're looking for ways to improve your craft and grow your expertise. These questions help create productive conversations that help you and your team gain new insights & perspectives.
Whether you're working in research, innovation, strategy, or facilitation, asking good questions is essential to driving productive discussions.
I hope these tips make you feel more confident driving those critical conversations.
We just announced the latest Book Club book! 🎉📚🎉
Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro challenges us to consider design's ethical and political impact, leaving the reader with a rallying cry to use design skills for the greater good.
Want to join the event? Grab the book and join the #book-club channel in the Guild of Working Designers Slack!
Designing Joyful Brainstorming Experiences
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Learn techniques to generate new ideas purposefully.
Reserve a seat
Facilitating Workshops
May 15-Jun. 5, 2023
Learn to design creative working sessions and lead collaborative work.
Reserve a seat
shared by Filipe Monteiro in the Guild
Until next week!
Hannah Baker
Educator & Co-Founder
The Fountain Institute
The Fountain Institute
The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.
Figma AI & Your New Design Title by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Last week, Figma made some big AI announcements that caused quite a controversy. Welcome to the dystopian world of design called: Figma's Big Announcement This year, AI was all over the Config conference with much-needed updates like background removal, AI-generated layer naming, and automated prototyping. However, the real game-changer was the 'Make Design' feature. Imagine being able to generate interfaces from text prompts. Sure,...
Real-Life Lessons in Co-Creation for Designers By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Have you ever faced the challenge of aligning a diverse team to create a unified vision? It's a common struggle for designers who aim to create products that resonate deeply with their users and business goals. Recently, I embarked on such a journey with the Guild of Working Designers to refresh our community approach. Today, I will provide an in-depth look at our process, challenges, and insights, showcasing how...
What is product discovery? by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, So, there's this secret term that product leadership uses to describe your work behind your back. And today, I want you to be crystal clear on what it is. It's a word they use to describe it when you do extra research to ensure you're designing the best possible idea. It's a phase of work that you might call UX, but they call it something else. They call it "product discovery." What is Product Discovery? The term comes from consultant and...